Posted!

Join the Conversation

Comments

Welcome to our new and improved comments, which are for subscribers only.
This is a test to see whether we can improve the experience for you.
You do not need a Facebook profile to participate.

You will need to register before adding a comment.
Typed comments will be lost if you are not logged in.

Please be polite.
It's OK to disagree with someone's ideas, but personal attacks, insults, threats, hate speech, advocating violence and other violations can result in a ban.
If you see comments in violation of our community guidelines, please report them.

Ephraim ‘thoroughly searched’ for doctor

EPHRAIM – The Door County Sheriff’s Department has no plans to conduct additional searches of the Ephraim area for Dr. Jeffrey Whiteside, a Fox Cities physician who was vacationing in the village when he disappeared June 29.

Air, water and land searches in the past three weeks haven’t discovered any sign of Whiteside, who was last seen leaving the Ephraim Yacht Harbor Marina on foot after an argument with his wife, Kathi. His family reported him missing two days later.

“At this point, searches will be conducted (only) if we get credible information” about Whiteside’s whereabouts, said Pat McCarty, chief deputy of the sheriff’s department. “We’re pretty confident that the Ephraim area has been thoroughly searched.”

Headwaters Search and Rescue, a nonprofit group, used four dogs, including one from Texas, to look for Whiteside during the weekend. The search covered areas east of Ephraim to State 57.

“They didn’t find anything,” McCarty said. “Finding nothing is still finding something. If you’re confident that you did a good search, you know that area is covered. We can cross that off and look elsewhere.”

Whiteside, 63, a doctor at Fox Valley Pulmonary Medicine, lives in Grand Chute and was vacationing in Ephraim, where he owns a condominium and boat, when he walked away. The disappearance is being investigated as a missing-person case. Foul play has not been ruled out.

The sheriff’s department hasn’t disclosed what Whiteside and his wife were arguing about or why she returned to Grand Chute several hours later — leaving him without a car — when he was expected to be at work the next morning. It also hasn’t revealed who saw Whiteside walk away from the marina or which direction he was headed.

McCarty said the Whiteside family was cooperating with the sheriff’s department. He declined to say what the department’s next steps would be in the investigation.

People on Facebook and other social media have questioned whether Whiteside’s disappearance is related to recent disappearances or deaths of doctors in Florida, North Carolina, North Dakota and Mexico.

McCarty said that information has been given to investigators to determine if there’s any correlation to the Whiteside case.

“We haven’t been contacted by any other law-enforcement agency or by the FBI or anything like that,” he said.

Dr. Jeffrey Whiteside, 63, is described as 5 feet 9 inches tall and 185 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a maroon-colored polo shirt and gray shorts. He wears eyeglasses. Anyone who has seen Whiteside should contact the Door County Sheriff’s Department at 920-746-2416.